Counseling and psychotherapy: Qualities of the practitioner

Counseling and psychotherapy: Qualities of the practitioner

Continuation of the interview I (R) had with the English psychologist (Q) in my previous series of articlesTherapy Meets Spirituality: A Psycho-Spiritual DiscussionWe turned to counseling and psychotherapy.

Q: Why do people come for counseling and therapy?

R: For a variety of problems and circumstances inherent in the human dilemma.

Q: The human dilemma?

R: The challenges and opportunities that arise from the human condition. These are essentially the eternal questions, which can be summarized as: Who am I? Where am I going? and what is the meaning of life? These fundamental questions can be expressed in various ways, but they boil down to three.

The first question can manifest itself in life's nagging issues having to do with emotionality, trust, the search for understanding and meaning, relationship difficulties, confusion about life expectations, and the like.

The second question concerns your life path, stage of life, psychobiological or instinctive thresholds and requirements, the fulfillment of roles and additional questions about value and self-worth.

The third question extends into the spiritual realms or at least into the question of higher power, numinous experience and directly addresses the fear of death and thus all fears.

Q: As a counselor or therapist, do you engage differently depending on which of these three questions underlies the client's concerns?

R: Yes. Essentially there are four relationships: counselor, therapist, depth psychotherapist and spiritual mentor or guide. As a psycho-spiritual therapist, I expect to be able to easily switch between these four definitions of my role and function as needed.

Q: From different customers?

R: From different clients or from the same client at different times. The human predicament is so rich and varied that an individual can find themselves in a personal problem that suddenly brings them to a deeper level of inquiry.

Q: Can anyone do it? What I mean is, since therapist skills seem to be largely synonymous with being a caring person, what are the particular resources that are the exclusive domain of therapists?

R: In a way you are right: a therapist is a caring person. But there's a little more to it than that. Furthermore, caring can include challenge, deep acceptance, real listening, empathy, deep receptiveness, a strong resistance to problem-solving and a holistic sensitivity. Couple all of this with skill and consideration, study, understanding and a repertoire of techniques and a consistent meditative or contemplative attitude reinforced by consistent practice and you've mostly got it covered, I think!

Q: I followed most of it, but what do you mean by holistic sensitivity?

R: For some reason I always think of a story I once heard about a Tibetan lama who seemed to achieve great physical feats, hovering just above the ground and traveling huge distances, defying gravity - something like that. When asked how he managed to perform these feats, one monk replied, "He breathes through his knees."

For example, holistic sensitivity means listening with the whole body, being open enough to receive unconscious communications, practicing nonjudgmentally with complete awareness, and allowing the senses and suprasenses to flow freely within the body so that you pick up from the other person to learn as much as possible about the truth of their current state.

Alternative practitioner psychotherapy

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